I'll tase you, bro. Don't push me... Pic via Getty Images.
ASX Small Caps Lunch Wrap: Who’s been feeding the WA cops a load of bull this week?
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Australian markets have lifted slightly this morning, following a more positive session on Wall Street overnight after US Fed Supremo Jerome Powell managed to give a speech without cramming both of his feet in his mouth and spooking the entire global economy in the process.
Blessed be, it’s a miracle!
It’s almost as much of a miracle as this story out of the Pilbara region of WA, a venue that most of Stockhead’s completely awesome, highly intelligent and devastatingly attractive readership is more likely to associate with mining than a baffling murder mystery.
Police were called to a scene near the side of a track in Wickham last week, after a walker discovered some badly decomposed human remains – obviously an horrific event for everyone involved.
But after some damn fine detective work by the local forensics team, the assistance of other forensic pathology experts in Perth and an expedited delivery of several dozen boxes of nerve-calming donuts, police were relieved to discover that the badly decomposed body was just a dead cow in a tracksuit.
WA police still have no explanation for precisely how the cow had died, or indeed why it was wearing a tracksuit, as cows are not particularly noted for their athleticism, or dedication to running in general.
They’re clearly less interested in Track, more interested in the Field events. #BaDum-Tish #Nike #JustMooIt
Thank you, thank you – I’m here all week… but you might want to avoid the veal.
TO MARKETS
As mentioned, things got off to a good start this morning for the ASX, with the benchmark tracking Wall St’s positive performance overnight to open 0.5% higher at 10:00am. By morning tea time, the ASX 200 was nudging +0.9% but that was starting to ease as we rolled into lunch.
A mini-rally through the early hours of the afternoon has the benchmark 1.0% higher and trending higher still… let’s hope it continues.
The InfoTech sector is weighing on the market this morning, leading the losing side with a -0.83% dip so far this morning, taking Utilities along for a negative ride on -0.23% as well.
But it’s the Materials sector on an absolute tear again today, up 1.99% so far, with both Consumer sectors up, Discretionary by 0.82% and Staples by 0.67%. The Energy sector is also tracking well, up 0.76% and Real Estate is building its own healthy returns today, up 0.81%.
There are a couple of Big Guns in the leaders chart this morning. Lithium player Allkem (ASX:AKE) is trading 5.9% higher today and gold / silver / copper / zinc / 25 other metals miner 29Metals (ASX:29M) is up 5.6% as well – both on no fresh news.
Meanwhile small business platform provider Xero (ASX:XRO) is suffering through another sell-down at the moment. It’s had a shade over $5.00 knocked off its price in under a week, and is down 5.0% today, again on no fresh news.
NOT THE ASX
In the US overnight, Wall Street reacted well to US Fed Chief Jerome Powell’s failure to talk about interest rates while giving a speech, with the major indices creeping skyward to finish the session with the S&P 500 higher by 0.70%, the Dow by 0.56% and tech heavy Nasdaq by 1%.
Early Morning Eddy Sunarto reports that Fed Chair Powell’s speech at the International Symposium on Central Bank Independence did not touch on monetary policy or interest rates.
However he did say the central bank is not, and will not be, a “climate policymaker”.
“The Fed must resist the temptation to broaden its scope to address other important social issues,” Powell said.
“Taking on such goals would undermine our independence. The Fed has narrow responsibilities regarding climate-related financial risks.”
I, along with the rest of the world, hope that Powell sees this as a sign that he’s quite welcome to indulge his passion for public speaking – just as long as he remembers that every time he says the word “inflation”, newly-minted St Pell, the Patron Saint of Hiding the Vatican’s Money, will come screaming out of his crypt to kick the Dow in the balls.
… Too soon?
In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei is up 1.12% on news that Stockhead editor Pete Farquhar has “invested” the GDP of several small African nations on a skiing holiday in Japan, after graduating (with First Class Honours) from the Michael Schumacher Downhill Skiing Academy.
In China, the Shanghai market is 0.29% higher as the nation continues to adjust to the “new normal” of its mounting Covid crisis, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng is 1.29% higher in early trade today.
In crypto, it’s been a pretty solid 24 hours with the overall market cap lifting by 1.0% and the majors all posting reasonable gains in the +0.6% – +1.5% range.
However, the long-awaited arrival of the Flare Network token has been met with a sell-down of near-biblical proportions. XRP holders were promised the tokens in December 2020 – and when they finally arrived (more than 2 years later), the new owners dumped pretty much all of them in a matter of hours, tanking the token’s price by an eye-watering 72%.
There’s more to ponder in crypto, which I wrote about this morning in Mooners and Shakers, because Rob “Yes, I still work here” Badman’s on leave this week.
ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for January 11 [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
| Code | Company | Price | % | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T3D | 333D Limited | 0.0015 | 50% | 49,570 | $3,189,317 |
| AAJ | Aruma Resources Ltd | 0.071 | 34% | 17,457,449 | $8,318,960 |
| ARE | Argonaut Resources | 0.002 | 33% | 1,500,000 | $9,542,807 |
| SMX | Security Matters | 0.215 | 26% | 256,269 | $28,544,961 |
| PKO | Peako Limited | 0.015 | 25% | 182,000 | $4,550,583 |
| AZS | Azure Minerals | 0.28 | 24% | 2,493,097 | $70,251,273 |
| AHN | Athena Resources | 0.012 | 20% | 14,767,809 | $8,704,676 |
| HYT | Hyterra Ltd | 0.019 | 19% | 105,263 | $7,705,579 |
| ATU | Atrum Coal Ltd | 0.007 | 17% | 138,237 | $8,350,195 |
| LNU | Linius Tech Limited | 0.0035 | 17% | 1,474,000 | $8,494,239 |
| MTH | Mithril Resources | 0.0035 | 17% | 300,000 | $9,789,271 |
| CR9 | Corellares | 0.023 | 15% | 120,040 | $6,321,818 |
| NAE | New Age Exploration | 0.008 | 14% | 127,000 | $10,051,292 |
| CMX | Chemxmaterials | 0.18 | 13% | 94,480 | $8,105,780 |
| ALM | Alma Metals Ltd | 0.009 | 13% | 384,069 | $7,312,006 |
| CLZ | Classic Min Ltd | 0.009 | 13% | 1,253,117 | $7,009,803 |
| HXG | Hexagon Energy | 0.018 | 13% | 1,128,691 | $8,206,654 |
| PUR | Pursuit Minerals | 0.018 | 13% | 1,974,630 | $18,280,798 |
| BAS | Bass Oil Ltd | 0.099 | 13% | 10,798,090 | $23,576,720 |
| M2M | Mt Malcolm Mines | 0.073 | 12% | 114,000 | $4,047,940 |
| BLG | Bluglass Limited | 0.028 | 12% | 1,601,112 | $33,488,792 |
| FRX | Flexiroam Limited | 0.038 | 12% | 87,385 | $21,825,051 |
| PXX | Polarx Limited | 0.029 | 12% | 26,813,253 | $35,176,620 |
| EVG | Evion Group NL | 0.069 | 11% | 234,035 | $17,307,066 |
| AL8 | Alderan Resource Ltd | 0.01 | 11% | 945,305 | $5,204,395 |
In Small Caps, there have been some major movers so far today, with Aruma Resources (ASX:AAJ) at the top of the tree with a very solid 35.8% lift on equally solid volume.
AAJ is booming this morning after revealing further high-grade lithium-rubidium intersections from its final batches of assays from its recently completed drilling program at the Mt Deans Lithium-Rubidium Project near Norseman, in the lithium corridor of south-eastern Western Australia.
The fresh assay results have returned high-grade rubidium up to 1.43% with an average of 0.64% Rb2O, and high-grade lithium up to 1.94% with an average of 0.84% Li2O, with highlight intersections including:
- 8m at 1.89% Li2O+Rb2O from 26m in MDRC0011
- 5m at 1.51% Li2O+Rb2O from 55m in MDRC0014
- 2m at 1.51% Li2O+Rb2O from 26m in MDRC0016
- 7m at 1.60% Li2O+Rb2O from 26m in MDRC0018
- 5m at 1.56% Li2O+Rb2O from 55m in MDRC0019
- 1m at 1.90% Li2O+Rb2O from 68m in MDRC0024
Also surging this morning is Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS), on news that major global lithium company Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) is set to inject another $15.3 million into AZS to take its stake in the local lithium player to 19.9%.
SQM will invest at a price of $0.2564 per share, which represents premiums of 13.9% to Azure’s last traded price of $0.225 per share on 6 January 2023; and 12.4% to Azure’s 10 day VWAP of $0.228 up to and including 6 January 2023.
And rounding out the most noteworthy trio for the morning is Askari Metals (ASX:AS2), another lithium player making a solid move today, but this one’s on no fresh news.
It is worth mentioning, though, that the 18.7% gain this morning is just the latest skyward surge for company, which has been on an epic climb since mid-December 2022, that has seen its trading price move from $0.32 on 16 December to $0.71 today – a $0.39 gain that has the company at a super-heated +49.4% for the week and +82.1% for the month.
ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS
Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for January 11 [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
| Code | Company | Price | % | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MGG | Mogul Games Grp Ltd | 0.001 | -33% | 148,750 | $4,895,162 |
| WBE | Whitebark Energy | 0.001 | -33% | 1,800,000 | $9,697,329 |
| EFE | Eastern Resources | 0.019 | -30% | 60,376,148 | $31,205,293 |
| GLV | Global Oil & Gas | 0.0015 | -25% | 2,012,598 | $6,857,595 |
| FGL | Frugl Group Limited | 0.007 | -22% | 2,586,800 | $2,383,646 |
| GTG | Genetic Technologies | 0.0025 | -17% | 2,002,882 | $27,701,895 |
| DDT | DataDot Technology | 0.006 | -14% | 79,936 | $8,707,086 |
| GCR | Golden Cross | 0.006 | -14% | 8,453 | $7,680,793 |
| CVR | Cavalierresources | 0.13 | -13% | 25,000 | $4,560,608 |
| IPT | Impact Minerals | 0.007 | -13% | 929,236 | $19,850,964 |
| BDG | Black Dragon Gold | 0.039 | -11% | 100,007 | $8,829,482 |
| BPP | Babylon Pump & Power | 0.004 | -11% | 317,559 | $11,059,971 |
| ADS | Adslot Ltd. | 0.009 | -10% | 110,000 | $22,043,484 |
| BAT | Battery Minerals Ltd | 0.0045 | -10% | 1,857,788 | $14,626,212 |
| ENT | Enterprise Metals | 0.009 | -10% | 213,267 | $7,050,807 |
| PVT | Pivotal Metals Ltd | 0.037 | -10% | 160,000 | $19,076,450 |
| KAU | Kaiser Reef | 0.195 | -9% | 146,126 | $28,005,289 |
| 1CG | One Click Group Ltd | 0.01 | -9% | 175,565 | $6,754,780 |
| ATH | Alterity Therap Ltd | 0.01 | -9% | 2,173,999 | $26,580,603 |
| AKO | Akora Resources | 0.15 | -9% | 565,743 | $11,911,385 |
| NXM | Nexus Minerals Ltd | 0.21 | -9% | 107,521 | $74,854,261 |
| RWD | Reward Minerals Ltd | 0.105 | -9% | 5,000 | $22,459,809 |
| GMN | Gold Mountain Ltd | 0.0055 | -8% | 1,138,709 | $11,068,895 |
| IBG | Ironbark Zinc Ltd | 0.011 | -8% | 1,851,162 | $17,601,411 |
| OAR | OAR Resources Ltd | 0.0055 | -8% | 411,111 | $14,466,227 |
